Agricultural balers have been used to consolidate and package crop material to facilitate the storage and handling of the crop material for later use. Typically, a mower-conditioner cuts and conditions the crop material for windrow drying in the sun. When the cut crop material is properly dried, a baler, for example a round baler, the most frequently used in industry, travels along the windrows to pick up the crop material and form the material into cylindrically-shaped round bales.
More specifically, the cut crop material is gathered at the front of the baler from along the ground, onto a pickup assembly, and introduced into a bale-forming chamber within the baler. Inside the cut crop is rolled up into a predetermined size. A conventional bale chamber may include a pair of opposing sidewalls with a series of belts, chains, and/or rolls that rotate and compress the crop material into the cylindrically-shaped round bale. When the predetermined size is achieved, the cylindrically-shaped round bale is wrapped and bound by net wrapping or other wrapping such as plastic wrapping and wire. After the round bale is wrapped, the back of the baler, or tailgate, opens and the wrapped bale is discharged.
Net wrapping is fed into the baler off a net roll and into a net wrapper assembly, conventionally located in the front of the baler. In some conventional balers, net rolls are manually installed and removed from the balers by an operator. During installation of the net roll in these conventional balers, the operator lifts the net roll, which is typically wrapped around a net roll tube (e.g., cardboard tube), and slides the net roll onto a net roll support tube while the net roll support tube is in a loading position. Additionally, once on the net roll support tube, the net roll tube is rotated in the operational direction as the net wrapping is manually threaded into the net wrapper assembly and the net roll is then moved into an operating position. As the baler forms, bounds, and distributes the bale, the net wrapping is removed from the net roll until the net roll is depleted and needs to be replaced by a new net roll, which may be stored on the baler (e.g., at the rear of the baler at the tailgate). During removal of the net roll, the operator manually removes the net roll tube (depleted net roll) from the net roll support tube, acquires a stored net roll and installs the new net roll onto the net roll support tube. The manual installation and removal of the net rolls may be cumbersome and time consuming. An improved method and system for installation and removal of the net rolls is needed.